Tony Wakeford

British Neofolk Musician

Anthony Charles Wakeford started his music career as bassist in '77 British punk band Crisis (2). In 1980 Crisis disbanded and Wakeford formed Death In June together with guitar player Douglas Pearce. In 1984, after being asked to leave, he formed his own personal project, called Above The Ruins. The music continued in the vein of early Death In June and Joy Division, with a nervous and dramatic post-punk sound. The new band disbanded quite soon. He came back in 1987 with Sol Invictus, involving Ian Read and shortly later Karl Blake of Lemon Kittens and Shock Headed Peters. The music of Sol Invictus on the first recordings was a mixture of acoustic and electronic sounds, creating some epic and dramatic songs which stand against the decadence of the West and of modern society. This sound characterizes the first three albums, "Against The Modern World" (1988), "In The Jaws Of The Serpent" (1989) and "Lex Talionis" (1990). In 1991 Ian Read left the band to form Fire + Ice, and Wakeford took the sound of Sol Invictus progressively more towards a dark folk approach, hiring new musicians, such as violinist Matt Howden and singer and instrumentist Sally Doherty. He's also active with the project L'Orchestre Noir, HaWthorn, and a series of collaborations with different artists. Sol Invictus' own self-produced label was S.V.L. Records, then called Cerne and finally Tursa.